The Weather (2011)

[MarquisDeSade]

Anyone see any sno-hawk crashes today?  So far I've seen two - one into a parked car in my neighborhood, the other into a cop car on the Suitland Parkway.

[CALSGR8]

What's a snow hawk crash? Is that some idiot that didn't clean off the top of their car and a whole bunch slid off causing an accident?  NO.  I haven't been out today.

Like Blanche says in "A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE; I've always depended on the kindness of strangers"  In other words, my neighbor helped me by digging out the car!

[PANatsFan]

holy crap. trees uprooted. power line to our hous is on the ground. no repair from pepco 15 hours after calling. our local att tower went down so no cell service. now my kindle battery is dying

[GburgNatsFan]

Must... contact... WNFF... members...

Sort of an odd choice for one of your last efforts with power.

holy crap. trees uprooted. power line to our hous is on the ground. no repair from pepco 15 hours after calling. our local att tower went down so no cell service. now my kindle battery is dying

[CALSGR8]

You mean a power line is on the ground and no one has come yet?  I'd call WTOP.  That's ridiculous!

Hmmmm.  There's an old fashioned thing.  Kind of rectangle, cardboard and cloth on the outside, pages with letters and numbers on the inside.  I think its called uhhhhh  HMMM  uhhhhhh..... A BOOK!  or What's that other thing.  Kind of shiny paper on the out side, with pictures, letters and numbers inside and out.  Lets  seee, it started with a M.  It's on the tip of my tongue...  MMMAAAGazine!  Yeah Yeah, That's the ticket!

    

[PANatsFan]

I guess they are telephone wires, because the power in back on and they aren't sparking

Get ready to laugh, Lois. Get ready to laugh:

[imref]

The models are showing a much bigger storm hitting the east coast tues-wed of next week.  It's still way too early to say with any accuracy what we'll get but the models show potential of 12-20" up the coast.  This one will combine colder air with more warm moisture from the gulf.

PWC and Fairfax schools are closed Monday (I think FF is closed Tuesday as well) so it could be a while before the kids go back.

[cmdterps44]

The models are showing a much bigger storm hitting the east coast tues-wed of next week.  It's still way too early to say with any accuracy what we'll get but the models show potential of 12-20" up the coast.  This one will combine colder air with more warm moisture from the gulf.

PWC and Fairfax schools are closed Monday (I think FF is closed Tuesday as well) so it could be a while before the kids go back.

Holy hell... Bring it on!

[JCA-CrystalCity]

dang this.  I've got to schedule a move to my new digs and get a heater repaired before I move in.

[PANatsFan]

My house is still 58 degrees inside

[Kevrock]

Is it spring yet?

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

next week has skiing written all over it. 

The models are showing a much bigger storm hitting the east coast tues-wed of next week.  It's still way too early to say with any accuracy what we'll get but the models show potential of 12-20" up the coast.  This one will combine colder air with more warm moisture from the gulf.

PWC and Fairfax schools are closed Monday (I think FF is closed Tuesday as well) so it could be a while before the kids go back.

[imref]

Mr. Plow finally arrived, heading out to re-shovel the driveway.

[tomterp]

Took me "only" 2 hrs 40 minutes to get home yesterday from Rockville to Oakton.  Left at 3:30 pm, just in time to join the government workers who all apparently hit the roads at almost exactly the same moment.   

Passed many a BMW or other expensive performance automobile where the driver evidently thought him or herself to be skilled enough as to negotiate blizzards with summer tires.   

My boss, who left at the same time and lives closer to the office, took 6:30 to get home to the Merrifield area.  2 hours of that,  however, he was fortifying himself in Grevey's for the last mile walk home. 

[HalfSmokes]

Passed many a BMW or other expensive performance automobile where the driver evidently thought him or herself to be skilled enough as to negotiate blizzards with summer tires.    

now that new BMWs use run flats (apparently the suspension is tuned to them so that they don't actually feel like run flats) a set of snow tires in a region with almost no snow is an iffy proposition, what I don't understand is people in giant suvs with out the engine upgrade and with two wheel drive thinking they can power through anything- guess what, your highlander is on a minivan frame and has a 4 cylinder engine- it's not an F150 with a v8

[PANatsFan]

Someone picked up another downed wire and tied it around a pole. Mine is still down. Pepco?

[tomterp]

now that new BMWs use run flats (apparently the suspension is tuned to them so that they don't actually feel like run flats) a set of snow tires in a region with almost no snow is an iffy proposition, what I don't understand is people in giant suvs with out the engine upgrade and with two wheel drive thinking they can power through anything- guess what, your highlander is on a minivan frame and has a 4 cylinder engine- it's not an F150 with a v8

A 4 cylinder is superior to a V8 in snow.  Spinning tires gets you nowhere fast. 

My 2-wheel rear drive BMW has all the fanciest traction control technology available (c. 2000) but all of it collectively paled to the effect that putting real winter tires on had. 

[GburgNatsFan]

Agreed. In my hypercheap Ford Escape (with front drive and traction control) I was doing things that a lot of others couldn't or didn't. It has pretty grippy tires, an anemic four, and *very* active traction control.

A 4 cylinder is superior to a V8 in snow.  Spinning tires gets you nowhere fast. 

My 2-wheel rear drive BMW has all the fanciest traction control technology available (c. 2000) but all of it collectively paled to the effect that putting real winter tires on had. 

[PANatsFan]

Agreed. In my hypercheap Ford Escape (with front drive and traction control) I was doing things that a lot of others couldn't or didn't. It has pretty grippy tires, an anemic four, and *very* active traction control.

It's secretly a Mazda

[HalfSmokes]

A 4 cylinder is superior to a V8 in snow.  Spinning tires gets you nowhere fast. 

My 2-wheel rear drive BMW has all the fanciest traction control technology available (c. 2000) but all of it collectively paled to the effect that putting real winter tires on had. 

I don't know, when I was in school we used to have a lot of fun flying through powder in my friend's Silverado. I personally feel fine in my 328 xi on ice, but there is so little clearance that you'd have to be an idiot to take it out in reel snow

[tomterp]

I don't know, when I was in school we used to have a lot of fun flying through powder in my friend's Silverado. I personally feel fine in my 328 xi on ice, but there is so little clearance that you'd have to be an idiot to take it out in reel snow

Day of the snow is fine, but the next day you've got all these frozen ice clumps all over the place, at which point a really low to the ground car is not an advantage. 

[HalfSmokes]

Day of the snow is fine, but the next day you've got all these frozen ice clumps all over the place, at which point a really low to the ground car is not an advantage. 

That's why it's living in the driveway tomorrow

[GburgNatsFan]

it's fun to fly through powder in a high clearance 4WD, and you need power to go through powder  (or sand). But we don't get much powder here, we get slippery, wet/icy slushy snow.

I don't know, when I was in school we used to have a lot of fun flying through powder in my friend's Silverado. I personally feel fine in my 328 xi on ice, but there is so little clearance that you'd have to be an idiot to take it out in reel snow

[HalfSmokes]

it's fun to fly through powder in a high clearance 4WD, and you need power to go through powder  (or sand). But we don't get much powder here, we get slippery, wet/icy slushy snow.

and not enough of it to let it dictate car purchases (thank god, there is something disturbing about nothing but subarus on the road)

[PANatsFan]

Snowing again